Boy Scouts of America to review secret files it used to lock out pedophiles

The Boy Scouts of America announced this week that it will conduct a comprehensive review of secret files it has used to keep pedophiles from using Scouting to sexually abuse boys.

The BSA keeps the files in locked cabinets at its Irving headquarters. Since the 1920s, the files have been used in the screening process for adults who apply for paid staff positions or who volunteer as Cub Scout or Boy Scout leaders.

The planned review will cover files from 1965 to the present, BSA leaders announced in an open letter to the Scouting community Tuesday.

Previously, Scouting leaders have denied that the files contain any relevant information about how pedophiles have gained access to children through the BSA or how the abusers were handled when they came to the attention of Scouting leaders in a local area.

But a recent investigation by the Los Angeles Times, which gained access to some of the so-called ineligible volunteer, or I.V., files, found instances in which BSA leaders discovered suspected pedophiles in their midst and did not report them to authorities. The implication is that BSA leaders sometimes chose to protect the organization from bad publicity instead of protecting abuse victims.

“There have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate or wrong,” said the open letter, which was signed by three top BSA officials — Wayne Brock, BSA’s chief executive in Irving; BSA national president Wayne Perry of Seattle; and national commissioner Tico Perez of Orlando.

Professor to lead study

Deron Smith, a BSA spokesman, said Wednesday night that Dr. Janet Warren, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia, will conduct the study. Its goals and design have not been decided, he said.

“The first thing is that we make sure anything in those files that law enforcement needs to know, we tell them,” Smith said.

The files are not uniform. One might contain only a newspaper clipping about someone arrested on charges of child molestation. Others might be thick with photos, court records and detailed physical descriptions of alleged perpetrators. Still others might contain detailed memos from local Scouting officials about a pedophilia suspect in their ranks.

The Scouts have fought for years to keep the files out of public view. They have vigorously tried to prevent the files from becoming evidence in civil trials pitting BSA against former Scouts who allege that the organization didn’t do enough to protect them from sexual abuse on campouts or other activities.

Paul Mones, an Oregon attorney who represents sexually abused Scouts, said this week’s BSA announcement represents a U-turn in its position.

“If, in fact, they are conducting a comprehensive review [of the I.V. files] to determine if there are any Scout leaders out there still abusing children, that is a fundamental shift from the past,” he said.

Mones and other lawyers obtained a $20 million jury verdict for an abused Scout in Portland, Ore. In that 2010 case, I.V. files from 1965 to 1985 were entered into evidence to support the assertion that the BSA and its local council knew about a pedophile and did nothing to stop him from abusing their client.

After the verdict, BSA lawyers argued to the Oregon Supreme Court that the files still should not be made public, but the court disagreed. Mones and his colleagues are preparing to unveil those files online next month.

Some BSA critics see the mea culpas in this week’s open letter as a prelude to the publicity that will be generated when the document scans of the file contents go online.

‘Too little … too late’

Kelly Clark, another lawyer who represents sexual abuse victims, including former Boy Scouts, said the planned review of I.V. files is “too little and comes much too late.”

Still, he applauded Scouting leaders for the open letter’s unequivocal apology to victims who suffered sex abuse at the hands of Scouting leaders.

The letter read: “For any episode of abuse, and in any instance where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest apologies and sympathies to victims and their families. One instance of abuse is too many.”

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